FOXY Choice welcomes any evidence of quality standards in garages that benefit motorists. Car mechanics who are prepared to enter rigorous trade awards like this one clearly see themselves as good enough to win. We think this should be celebrated in an industry where mechanics don’t have to be qualified to repair our cars or accredited as fit for purpose.

How else can women check that their local garage is one of the best when it comes to trusting them with their car’s safety?

As things stand complaint levels are too high and all motorists find it nigh on impossible to single out the measurably best garages from a sea of confusing acronyms. Trade associations have a vested interest in their trade members goodwill and other garage schemes are merely there to sell their sponsors goods and services. There is no one independent body to help motorists understand their choices -  although there wouldn’t need to be one if the industry was regulated…

Congratulations are therefore due to the following car mechanics who have gone that extra mile and passed the online test before having to prove their technical skills in rigorous practical tests; en route to deciding who is to be Top Technician 2011.

ENGLAND

Essex
Matthew Eeles of Saffron Autos
John Tinham of John Tinham Motor Engineers
Steve Smith of Hills Toyota

Lancashire
Lee Collins of the Kwik Fit Group, Manchester
Rafal Rosielewski at Crewe Volkswagen

Norfolk
Glyn Morgan of Breckland Auto Services
Clive Atthowe of Clive Atthowe Tuning

West Sussex
Paul Gutsell of Guy Salmon Jaguar
David Harney at Queensway Garage

Yorkshire
Keith Windle of Skipton Ford and Mazda
Sean Wright at Benfield Ford, Leeds

Other areas…
John French of Grovebury Cars, Bedfordshire
Jamie Virdee at FIAT UK, Berkshire
Peter Jones at Pete Jones Auto, Chester, Cheshire
Matthew Booth at the Village Garage, Hampshire
Jason Evans at Cotswold BMW, Herefordshire
Andrew Gilbrook at Jemca Toyota, Kent
Mark Waby of MWT Automotive Services, Lincoln
Stuart White at Complete Car Maintenance, Surrey
Simon Harris of Pebley Beach Hyundai, Wiltshire

SCOTLAND
Conrad Omand at CS Omand Garage, Orkney
Duncan Ronaldson of Western Saab, Perth

WALES
Gareth Edwards at Gwyndaf Evans Motors, Gwynedd
Craig Stephens at Kwik Fit, Rhondda

Oh that all mechanics were required to go through this process and/or be ATA accredited with the ethical commitment we like so much…

We tell women drivers to look for garages that are ATA employers, hold a BSI Kitemark and/or operate to an OFT fully approved code. This is a clear sign they are better than most of the competition. We also like garages that employ females – that’s a great start towards showing they understand our needs.

Well done chaps.

FOXY Steph

Find out which garages are FOXY approved ie have signed up to our female friendly FOXY Promise AND have measurable quality schemes for service and repair work.

Swot up here about the confusion of  good garage quality signs motorists are expected to get their heads round before making their choice.

It’s good to see that Yorkshire Trading Standards has fined a tradesman nearly £2000 as a result of his passing himself off as a member of a trade association, implying professional conduct that wasn’t the case.

I’d like to see more of these checks and fines in the motor industry so that women drivers could be 100% confident that they are dealing with one of the best and honourable businesses. FOXY Choice’s terms and conditions require female friendly garages to self certify their business credentials including current membership of trade associations; there could easily be a degree of sloppiness here because it isn’t always possible for us to check that all trade memberships, for example, are correct or up to date.

Because we favour, promote and reward garage businesses with OFT (schemes operating to a fully approved code and those that have yet to get there), ATA and BSI Kitemark credentials in particular, I’d hate to think we might be misrepresenting this important sign of quality to women drivers in any of our female friendly garage listings… or that businesses might be passing off trade memberships at any stage.

In this instance, David Pearce who is an electrician from York, pleaded guilty to four charges of displaying a trade association logo he was not entitled to and one of displaying a ‘trust mark’ he wasn’t entitled to use.

York Trading Standards claimed that Pearce’s firm used quotation forms bearing the logo of the National Association of Professional Inspectors And Testers (NAPIT) and used a trust mark linked to the same organisation. Pearce also displayed the logo ‘inappropriately’ on his firm’s website.

In his defence, Pearce claimed he had not run a business before and obtained help from a friend in the same occupation. This third party had given him quotation and invoice forms he had copied and he hadn’t realised that his website could be accessed by the public…

Nice try David…

I got this story from the helpful Professional Associations website and am as surprised as they are to not find this as a news story at the NAPIT website yet. I imagine that any professional business association would wish to discourage trade cowboys from making false claims about their membership. After all, this might then flush a few lapsed members out of their cubby holes to conveniently remember to pay a recently lapsed sub!

FOXY Steph

Find out about the lading trade associations that female friendly garages can join in FOXY’s Good Garage Guide.

Female friendly garage Colbert Auto Services of Benfleet in Essex is offering local women drivers the opportunity to book their MOT online for just £45 representing a saving of some £8.  Colbert’s Kevin Jones knows that more and more women are responsible for looking after their car’s maintenance and doing their garage shopping online.

‘This is our way to help women save time and money – they can also take advantage of considerably lower prices than at franchised dealers if any work is needed for their car to pass the MOT test’.

Women drivers are reasssured that Colbert Auto Services is one of the best garages because it is a BSI Kitemark licensee and has subscribed to the female friendly FOXY Choice garage network. This also means they have signed the FOXY Promise to ‘never knowingly overcharge, patronise or sell their customers services they do not need or want’.

They are now listed at the new femalefriendlyapproved.com website.

FOXY Steph

Does the Motor Industry Service and Repair Code/garage market itself to women and encourage them to pay over the odds in car dealerships? Yes I think it does.

For starters the Motor Codes website,  blog and recent press releases state….

“Don’t risk a rip-off, you can trust a Motor Codes garage.”

“Consumers, why go anywhere else? Don’t risk a rip off, look for the logo and have confidence in your choice of garage by using the Garage Finder facility on the Motor Codes website.”

[Click here to find out] ‘How the Service and Repair Code solves your cowboy garage concerns….’

“Franchised and independent garages who subscribe to the Code surely have the edge over those that don’t – or won’t.”

“Businesses that commit to the Code are demonstrating their willingness to provide consistent levels of customer satisfaction and the more that subscribe, the easier it is for consumers to find the good guys.”

Yet these marketing statements, intended to influence men and women drivers alike are misleading because…

1   the likes of the ATA, BSI Kitemark and OFT approved Stage Two schemes operated by Bosch Car Service and VBRA are higher standards than the Motor Industry Service and Repair Code

2   the majority of manufacturers expect higher service and repair standards of workmanship from their franchised dealers than the Motor Industry Service and Repair Code states

3   only a small percentage of subscribers to the Motor Industry Service and Repair Code have been inspected (142 compliance checks in Q1 2009 gives you an idea of how many of the 5500 subscribers have been vetted during the full year…) so this is an EXTREMELY CHEAP promotion at just £75 a year for any business to get on the quality bandwagon and claim to be better than others without having to prove anything…

4   most of the businesses listed (iro 80% I estimate, probably more) are franchised car dealerships. Check out your nearest town via the Motor Codes website for starters. Is it a coincidence that this scheme is run by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders who exist to represent the best interests of the main manufacturers? How can they put the best interests of motorists first (but someone must)…

5   female motorists on a budget (ie most of us in a recession) choosing a Motor Codes subscriber are likely to feel tricked into paying more than we need to because the website suggests Motor Code subscribers are better…

For example and as at today…

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in Glasgow only 2 out of 50 are independent garages…

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in Newcastle upon Tyne only 1 out of 42 businesses is an independent garage

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in Manchester only 3 out of 33 are independents

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in Birmingham only 3 out of 35 are independents

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in London only 6 out of 46 are independents

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in Shoreham-by-Sea (my nearest town in Sussex) only 3 out of 33 are independents

If you wanted to choose a Motor Codes subscriber in Exeter only 2 out of 23 are independents

and so on…it’s the same skew across the UK. Draw your own conclusions.

As I see it, this means that many men and women drivers, choosing a Motor Codes subscriber (as a result of lavish marketing budgets) could end up paying over the odds in car dealerships without realising they could have had an informed choice of a good independent garage…

AND that the majority of Motor Codes subscribers have neither had a welcome visit or a Compliance Check yet. The fact is that these subscribers don’t have to be good garages, they just have to say they are.

If it was me and I found this out, I’d feel cheated by the very industry and OFT- backed code that is promising me and other women drivers like me better car servicing, MOT and repair value for money services.

And isn’t this the very reputation that the motor industry wishes to change – for overcharging motorists?

Undoubtedly manufacturers jumped on board because Ford signed up first and told its dealers to subscribe a year ago… but I remain amazed that so many manufacturers ever thought that their authorised dealers needed to subscribe to such a basic Motor Code… have they read it?  Their dealers MUST have been doing more than this in the aftersales department…

Of course I support attempts to raise standards in the motor industry, but this code is not the salve to all garage problems yet. It isn’t ready for consumer marketing and it could mislead and increase industry complaints not reduce them as it set out to do.

And many, many garages and dealerships are offering much higher and female friendly standards  – let’s set the quality bar much higher in future.

FOXY Steph

Our Head of Sales, Claire Boundy, lives near Taunton so it seemed like a good place to start our FOXY Lady Drivers Club foray into the West Country providing female friendly garage and motoring support services for women.

We now have a really friendly BSI Kitemark licensed garage in Taunton to provide women driver members with car checks plus a range of FOXY approved local garages offering MOT, servicing and repair discounts so that’s a good start. Lots of national offers and our accident assistance and helpdesk of course!

The disappointing bit here is that despite contacting all the dealerships in the area, none have taken the plunge to sign the FOXY Promise and become a FOXY Choice subscriber.

Now clearly dealerships are in the doldrums and perhaps they are sitting on the fence for the moment but with a unique female friendly business proposition to promote themselves online to new customers and as a female friendly business ahead of others I am surprised and disappointed not to have more takers with a view to when the good times return. Very short-sighted I think.

Maybe when they pick up on our local PR and Musgrove Park hospital promotion we’ll have some new recruits – let’s hope they haven’t left it too late to compete with the independents for valuable aftersales business that can lead into the showroom.

Unless, of course, they aren’t female friendly businesses (and I’ve spoken to many UK dealership staff that clearly aren’t) and know that the FOXY Promise will out them as such.

So far I have been surprised by a couple of leading national garage organisations that have blanched at FOXY’s service and ethical commitment (see PS). Very telling but not a surprise if our Helpdesk call log is anything typical!!

FOXY Steph

PS: The FOXY Promise states “We strive to be a female friendly business and will never knowingly overcharge, patronise or sell our customers services they do not need or want.”
Sounds fairly basic to me but businesses that fail the female friendly FOXY Promise test know we spread the word in the Club…

On behalf of the motorist and after so many years in the making, FOXY had hoped for a more demanding code of practice; one that aspired to greatness for a change, not just the same old minimum business standards including an ‘accessible and robust dispute resolution’ system.
Had the benchmark standard been set higher, I feel sure that the number of complaints would start to fall proportionately.

All in all, I am disappointed.

The new Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair, run by a division of a leading motor industry body, costs £75 to sign up to. Garages, dealerships and fast fit businesses of all sizes and competence levels alike can buy their certificate to say they have signed up to this code knowing that this is going to be backed with serious promotion equating this to best practice; all this to be read by trusting motorists, female and male alike. And they get this without being vetted.

Is this as good as it might be?

Please judge for yourself.

The code asks them to commit to basic business behaviour such as ‘honest and fair services’ and ‘open and transparent prices’ and provides a helpdesk and complaints procedure. Sound familiar? It would if you worked in the industry as there have been other similar models of old.

My point is that many garages and dealerships are SO much better than this already. Granted some others need to be reminded of the basics but there are also those who may well rub their hands in glee at being associated with better businesses for as little as £75, if only to take advantage of the initial communications launch.

This code is not as good as others in existence but how do motorists know this? What about proven and demanding quality schemes like ATA, BSI or OFT approved code status?

The industry has tried this ‘one size fits all’ approach before. If too many garages/dealerships sign up (and they will because it’s too cheap) it will be unsustainable to manage the quality issues. But it’s a nice little earner at an estimated minimum 5000 businesses x £75 at start up. A cool £375,000+ for promotion and complaints handling; FOXY could do wonders with that sort of income.

I’d be even more sceptical if I had invested heavily in going the extra mile to prove my professionalism above others through ATA training, completing the BSI Kitemark process (service and repair or bodywork repairs) or was a Bosch Car Service centre, the only UK garage network to have invested serious time, money and effort in achieving and maintaining the rigorous OFT approved code of practice. Some businesses have more than one of these acronyms, a few have all three. They are the best there are today.

Looking at this from the female motorists point of view, which FOXY is unique in doing,  rather than from the industry’s point of view, foxy ladies want to know what their local garage choices are and who and where the best ones are.

This code doesn’t answer either question but it could have done, with a little more ambition at the outset.

Yet I am sure it will be declared a success and I really do hope it does make a difference… BUT it is too cheap and easy for garages to sign up to a ‘me too’ undemanding scheme like this one and opt out later if the going gets tough.

The consumer does not understand this yet.